September 3, 2018 3:28pm EDTSeptember 3, 2018 3:28pm EDTInterested in trying out a best ball fantasy football league but not sure how or where to play? Howard Bender from Fantasy Alarm breaks down some of his favorite draft strategies and provides tips on how to dominate your league.Le'Veon Bell(SN/Getty)

Howard Bender

Published on Sep. 3, 2018

Sep. 3, 2018

Thanks to the good people at MFL10s (among other sites), the concept of best-ball games has become more popular in fantasy football circles. Instead of having to deal with the waiver wire, start 'em/sit 'em decisions, trade offers, and injuries, you just draft your roster, and for the rest of the season, that's your team. Through thick and thin, rain and shine, you are married to those players, with your optimal lineup automatically registering each week. With in-season maintenance at a minimum, creating a preseason cheat sheet, formulating a draft strategy, and perfecting your rankings is extremely important. And it truly means that the owner who drafts the best team, from "starters" to "sleepers" wins.

The drafting process becomes more pressure packed in best-ball leagues. Can you handle it? Well, our friends at Fantasy Alarm have been kind enough to lay out the best strategies for winning your best-ball league. So, have a read and know exactly what you're getting yourself into before you start picking players in this exciting, non-traditional format. -- Jacob Camenker

Fantasy Football Draft Strategy, Tips: Best Ball leagues

So, you wanna play best ball, huh?

Well, we here at Fantasy Alarm want to help you be the best damn best-baller out there, so our goal is to get you shining bright in the draft room. There are a number of different strategies you can employ, depending on who some of your key targets will be this season. If you feel like you need to take Aaron Rodgers in the third round, we can help you adjust your draft strategies to fill in the rest of your spots with high-quality players. If locking down Gronk is your game, we can help there, too.

Now, obviously, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, which means there’s not just one way to draft a winning fantasy football team. The Fantasy Alarm team is going to run a series of best-ball draft write-ups over the next two months in the Draft Guide so you can see the variety of strategies we use. For this piece here, I am going to share my thoughts and strategies for drafting each of the fantasy positions, and we’ll see if we can’t get you into the money across the board.

Quarterbacks

Just like we see in seasonal fantasy formats, the general consensus is to wait on quarterbacks. While others are taking the likes of Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady in the fourth round, you can find strong production out of the likes of Jared Goff or Philip Rivers in the 12th. Last season in four-point passing TD leagues, the top three scoring quarterbacks were Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, and Tom Brady. Fourth was Kirk Cousins, followed by Matthew Stafford, Alex Smith, and then Rivers. Between Brady and Rivers, there was only a 22-point gap between the two which comes to less than two points per game, on average. You have to be looking for value in drafts and based on the numbers, and there’s plenty more value in waiting for Rivers than jumping early for Brady.

You can certainly make a case for taking one of those elites, and I’ve been pounding the Deshaun Watson drum a lot this offseason, so you can certainly work it out if you feel compelled. However, anything before the fourth round is tough for me because running backs are your bread and butter. I’ve done drafts where I’ve taken Watson in the fifth round, but only if I land at least two bell-cow running backs in my first three picks. As you will read further down, you can push off the wide receivers in this format, so you can take the quarterback early, but rest assured, only if you have some elite runners.

As for how many quarterbacks to take in this format, most will tell you three and, for the most part, I am totally onboard with that, especially if you make the early move for a Rodgers or a Watson. If you lose one early in the season, like we saw with both of these guys last year, you need to give yourself future options and protect yourself from additional injuries and bye weeks. It can be tough to roster three if you don’t have a deep bench, but you also don’t want to be stuck without a starting quarterback in any week.

Yes, they are your bread and butter. Just a glance at the ADP will tell you that as the top 15 are usually off the board by the end of the second round. To further illustrate their importance, just look at the ADP for the next 15, as most of them are usually gone by the end of the fifth. If you try to wait on the position at all and then find yourself lurking around the backfields of teams like Green Bay, Detroit or even New England, you’ll see just how unpredictable (read: trashy) things can get. You want to know who is getting the touches and how many they are seeing per game. No, it’s not an exact science and some weekly matchups will be tougher than others, but simple math will tell you that 15-to-20 touches per game for Leonard Fournette gives you a better chance to score than the six or seven Jamaal Williams may see.

Even in a PPR format, which most best-ball leagues are, trying to get cute with something like the Zero-RB strategy may prove to be your ultimate demise. Relying on the likes of Theo Riddick, Duke Johnson, or Chris Thompson is incredibly risky, as you need at least two backs to have strong, productive weeks. Considering all of these guys share the backfield with other running backs, you can’t exactly rely on consistent touches, can you? And what happens if their team is leading the game and they’re trying to chew up the clock in the second half? Fewer passing formations means fewer chances for these guys, and that’s not going to help you win each week.

As for how many you look to draft, understand that you can never have enough running backs. Never.

Wide Receivers

Now here is where you can play around a little more. Owning studs like Antonio Brown and DeAndre Hopkins is a no-brainer. However, I won’t take any receiver if Todd Gurley, Le’Veon Bell, David Johnson, or Ezekiel Elliott are on the board. I’d even be hard-pressed to take one of Brown or Hopkins before Saquon Barkley or Alvin Kamara. While owning a high-end wide receiver can be a real treat, especially if they’re seeing double-digit targets every game, you run a greater risk having to rely on weekly production from the position.

Again, guys like Brown and Hopkins are true studs, and while they will have the occasional down game like anyone will, their overall production cannot be argued against in any format. But look down the list to names like Odell Beckham, Michael Thomas, A.J. Green, and Julio Jones, and you’ll see several more games where they failed to live up to their draft position. Top-flight wideouts routinely see double-coverage, and if they do find themselves in a one-on-one situation, you can bet the defensive coordinator has some safety help drifting over. Thomas illustrates the point best, as there were at least nine games where he failed to provide you with strong numbers, even in a PPR format. This is why you can wait on the position in best ball.

To wait on receivers isn’t to say you don’t take any in the early rounds. I like grabbing at least one strong wideout inside the first three rounds, but after that, I tend to go running back heavy (I want RBs so good that one lands in my flex spot each week). Maybe I’ll even execute that Deshaun Watson pick in the fifth. The reason for this is because I will then load up on wideouts who are in the third or fourth tier of the position. If you only start two receivers (maybe three) and you draft eight or nine in total, your odds of having two guys hit each week are pretty strong. Maybe one week it’s Golden Tate and Sterling Shepard; maybe another week it’s Nelson Agholor and Michael Crabtree. You see less week-to-week consistency from wideouts not named Brown or Hopkins, so why not just bulk up on the mid-tiered ones and play the percentages?

Overall, this position is hot trash. It’s like the catcher position in fantasy baseball. You’ve got a few decent guys who will cost you a higher pick than you’d like to invest, and the rest are a crapshoot. I have a hard time using that third or fourth-round pick on Rob Gronkowski or Travis Kelce, but I am more than happy to take someone like Greg Olsen, Evan Engram, Delanie Walker or Kyle Rudolph in the sixth or seventh round. Even if you reached on a top quarterback in the third, you still have four or five picks to grab your core running backs and wide receivers. If you wait on the quarterbacks, then grabbing one of these tight ends makes even more sense. But once you start looking at guys like David Njoku, George Kittle, and others further down the rankings, it’s a roll of the dice for sure.

Similar to the quarterbacks, many will tell you to draft three tight ends. I can understand the reasoning, especially if you take an injury-risk like Gronk, but with the lower-tiered tight ends being so spotty, it almost doesn’t make sense to waste the extra bench spot. Drafting two tight ends should be sufficient unless you are drafting in a league like the FFPC, where tight ends get a 1.5 PPR instead of the standard one-point.

Defense/Special Teams

Here’s another situation where people will sometimes take three instead of two, but I’m just not that guy. I don’t like to reach for a defense, even if you’re talking about the Jaguars. I’ll wait until Round 15 to grab a decent one like the Broncos, Chargers or Eagles, but then wait until the rest of the room starts going defense-crazy and then I’ll grab my second one. Since injury risk is a non-factor, two is plenty, as it covers your bye week.

Kickers

If the running backs are at the top of the pecking order, kickers are easily the last. Two will suffice when drafting and, in all honesty, you can wait until your last two picks of the draft. Sure, you can reach a round or two and grab Greg Zuerlein , but it’s really not that necessary in a best-ball format. One of your kickers should produce. Worrying about a third just in case seems like overkill.